A whimsical and nonsense fluffy crime story made for Japanese TV (Fuji Television) and from the times when the future Master Shunji
Iwai was still experimenting with short TV films (this film plays for 50 minutes). I have only seen 3 of his made for TV films, besides this the
haunting and mysterious Picnic and the beautiful Fireworks, and this one is easily the .... the least interesting in this trio of films.

But, it has got it's moments and then especially the acting of the young Tadanobu Asano, the future Superstar of Japanese film, which
is immaculate, but also the song played at the end, the magically beautiful song Break These Chains written and performed by The One
and Only, The Amazing Chara, one of her best tunes ever (yes, listen to it on Youtube or buy it).

Chara - The Enigmatic and very talented singer/songwriter, and actress in 2 legendary Shunji Iwai films. For me, it's one of the great mysteries
that Chara only acted in the 2 Iwai films. Sure, as one of Japan's greatest and most unique singers she was surely busy with writing/recording songs,
BUT - her performances in Picnic (Pikunikku) and Swallowtail Butterfly (Suwaroteiru) was so outstandingly Great that it's an enigma that she did not
make more films. Glico the Hooker and Coco with the black feathers, 2 absolutely unforgettable performances.
She was born in 1968 and met Tadanobu Asano during the filming of Picnic 1994 and they were married between 1995-2009. What a talented couple

Chara in 70% Yugure no Uta (Evening Song - Not included in this film)

The singer/songwriter with that unique voice, she's one of my big musical favourites gifted with a voice and a presence you won't forget,
after listening to her and seing her in her many interesting music videos, you're Hooked. She's still going strong and recording new cool songs after
a quarter of a century in the music business - read more about her on my Japanese film and music Page 3.

The Story - OK, very flimsy as it is:

A detective (Hiroshi Ohguchi) has been hired by a wealthy biologist to find his lost, possibly stolen, tropical Dragonfish. The special super rare
Red Dragonfish, an endangered species worth 10 million yen on the black market. He hires the help of Poo Rin-won (Miyuko Yoshimoto) ... a name
that sounds a bit non-japanese to me, korean maybe? She's working for a data bank agency and together they sleuth around looking for clues.
Poo finds the enigmatic fish collector Natsuro (Tadanobu Asano) and they start to hang out, but, he may be connected with the international weapons
dealer and terrorist Tetsu Tomiyama and is possibly a killer too.

The guys playing the westerners here are BAD beyond belief and the "action" scenes are very amateurishly made. A Silly story with a somewhat
funny ending though, and the good things were 1. the acting of Tadanobu Asano when he talks with Poo about fishes and life in general, and
2. Chara singing her song at the end.

The film is presented in it's original TV fullscreen 4:3 ratio and with a japanese Dolby Digital stereo with english subtitles. DVD region 3. No Extras